You find the darndest things in prewar Pullmans...

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

---

Working, fluted Christmas tree light bulbs.  Betcha they're worth more than the CARS are!  ;-)

 

Mitch

[jwse30]

I've also found similar lamps in various accessories. I bet the blue really makes those cars look neat in the dark.

J White

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

Yeppers! 

Mitch

[Penny Trains]

Love those old GE Mazda lamps!  Yes Virginia, there is a vintage light bulb community out there, but I don't belong to it (too expensive).

Becky

[thesiding]

Found a plastic ballerina in a milk car once

Guess they thought he was lonely

[M. Mitchell Marmel]

thesiding

Found a plastic ballerina in a milk car once

Guess they thought he was lonely

Hee!  One reason I tend not to use cars having working doors when running trains for the kids is that they WILL open the doors and use the cars to do what the prototype does (i.e. transport things from Point A to Point B).  Unwedging a Hot Wheels car from a Lionel Metro-North subway car can be...interesting.  ;^.^

Mitch

[Northwoods Flyer]

I've found many of the old Christmas tree lights in lighted cars.  They also show up in accessories and buildings.  When I was young all of our Plasticville buildings were lighted with those lights.  My dad took an old string of lights and cut them into individual lights. They were then attached to the track with the common power clips and tucked inside the buildings. Every once in a while I run into the box of them tucked under the train table.

This is one find in an Observation Car.  I found it while investigating an uncharacteristic rattle in the car.

Enjoying the World's Greatest Hobby

Northwoods Flyer

[sir james I]

The Marx switch tower is a very common place to find those light bulbs.

[Firelock76]

If anyone's serious about collecting those old Christmas lamps ( and I'm not, full disclosure here) my advice as an antiquer is to check out antique shows and flea markets from October to December, in other words as the Christmas season's approaching.  This is when the exhibitors who specialize in Christmas collectables start coming out of the woodwork and it's amazing what they come up with.  Like any collectable prices are likely to go from reasonable to ridiculous, so look around and get your eye in before you leap.

Lady Firestorm's sister Princess Pat loves Christmas collectables, and we've kept her well supplied over the years just from going to these shows.

[thesiding]

Had found a box of those lamps in a train box I picked up years ago sold them quickly on e bay (along with a unopened can of tennis balls from the sixties)  granted can not buy a second house with said profits(even a model one)

As I am sure anyone know anything that is collectable has a "following" trick is to find it

[LL675]

I have a baggie with those lights. I use them in my Diner.

[cwburfle]

Thanks to this thread, and a near duplicate on another "O" gauge train site, I took a stab at relocating a very interesting web site about the history of Christmas lights. I hope others find the material to be interesting as well. Here is the link:

 

http://www.oldchristmastreelights.com/

 

 

[Firelock76]

Good Lord, that is ONE amazing website!  More info than I can digest in one sitting.  Looks like I'll have to make a rainy day project out of it, along with a bag of doughnuts and a BIG pot o' coffee.

Just fascinating.

[sulafool]

Good link, CW. While poking around, I discovered a banner ad for "Lionel Christmas Trains" which leads to another interesting site

[cwburfle]

I had a whole bunch of antique Christmas bulbs and strings, purchased for peanuts at a local country auction. I had no plans to actually use them, so I ended up giving them away to a friend at work who expressed an interest in actually using them.
Included were a couple of boxes (10 packs) of Christmas bells. Part of me wishes I kept those.

I do have a box (50 pieces) of bulbs that are shaped / painted into Santa Claus figures. I think they were made in Japan. I've never looked into whether they have any resale value., I like them, and am holding onto them.

 

 

[Penny Trains]

I was poking around a few years back with the idea of using the old, old style C7 light strings for my vintage 1950's tree that I use in my bedroom with the postwar layout.  You remember the ones with the red and green wires and the wood beads for holding them to the branches?  Would have looked authentic but the stuff I was finding was both out of my price range and operationally questionable.  The other drawback was that most strings only had 7 sockets per strand and I wanted a lot more light than that.  In the end I used modern (90's) C7 strings (75 bulbs) and attached them to the flocked branches with zip ties.  But I'd still like to use those early style beaded, cloth covered strings one day.  I just think they're neat.  

Anyhoo, at that time I discovered also the shaped bulbs and the ones with images hand painted on them.  They're really cool but just like all my trains I'd want to operate them.  But unlike my trains I wouldn't be able to fix them.  

Becky

[Banks]

The Pullman cars pulled by my Dad's 254E have those old Christmas bulbs in them. They're white instead of blue.

My grandpap and my folks both used some of the C-6 (if one goes the all go)Christmas lights as I was growing up. I enjoyed them. Shortly after Mrs & I were married in '75 we were at an auction and there was a shoebox full of c-6 bulbs. It was the very last item sold but I waited them out and bought the box for $0.50. I tested every one and all but two were good. The rest as they say is history. My tree and the candles in all the windows use them. The outside is decorated with primarily C-9 lights. (the big ones)

It took us many years to collect them going to thrift shops, second hand stores and flea markets  but I have enough c-6 bulbs to last my lifetime plus a couple more at the rate I use them . when i first started my collection nobody wanted them. 

The ones on the tree are connected to a dimmer. the candles in the windows have had a diode placed in them to reduce the voltage on the bulbs and they still look great

Becky,

if you do use those old light connect them to a dimmer to keep them cooler and they'll last forever

[Firelock76]

Nice job on the house Mr. Banks!  don't know where you live but wherever it is it sure looks like Christmas country.

One good thing about a dimmer is it feeds the juice to the bulbs slowly.  It's usually that sudden surge of power that blows an incandescent bulb.  I'm sure we've all heard stories of incandescent bulbs that were screwed in, turned on , never turned off, and have lasted for decades.

[Penny Trains]

Looks great!

Back in ye olde days...

...when I had 40,000 lights on my house and a metric tonne of plywood artwork around the yard, I burned out a lot of light bulbs!    I even watched as a string of C-9's exploded bulb by bulb in sequence from one end of the string to the other!    After that I went out and bought a fire extinguisher!  

Becky

[Firelock76]

A string of C-9's exploded in sequence?  I hope it happened at night!

"OOOOOOOOOO!!!!  AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Who sez fireworks are only for Independence Day?

[phillyreading]

Those old GE Mazda lights can be found at train shows or yard sales. They were very common many years ago, and they were meant to be used in series in a string of 7 or 8 lights, so the working voltage at each light was close to 17.15 volts for 7 lights and 15 volts for 8 lights. So using the Mazda lights in Lionel trains was a common practice. I have two cardboard boxes with GE Mazda lights in them, they came in 10 to a box and usually one color in a box, however there were many colors(around 8 different colors) of Mazda lights. I use the old GE Mazda lights in my Plasticville houses with light sockets from Radio Shack and an old Lionel single train transformer.

[engineerbob]

How about a wasp nest found in the corner of a 607 car? Fortunately it had been vacated long ago, but I still carefully prodded it and, when determined it had noting alive within, removed and disposed it!